Masks
by Supernatural Crossover Girl
Summary: Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Her masks keep appearing, her masks keep slipping. Her role keeps changing. Who is she? Sequel to ATWAS
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Masks

**Summery: **Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Her masks keep appearing, her masks keep slipping. Her role keeps changing. Who is she? Sequel to ATWAS

* * *

><p><em>"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first." <em>  
><em>― Jim Morrison<em>

A light appears on stage, showing a woman wearing a pantsuit.

"There are many crossroads in life. One choice leads to another, and another." she remarks, tilting her head back, to look at the roof, "choices, choices litter our roads. Each choice we do not take, spawns a new world, and another and another." She looks back at the audience, and opens her arms as far as she can. "This story is about a choice, a path taken at a crossroads. This is about the woman who walked that path. And this is about her choices along her way. And the mask she wore." The light goes out, then back on. The woman is gone.

**Act One**

The blades clashed against one another as they fought. Her hair flew behind her, distracting her slightly. She was sliced across her ribs, making her wince, but she ignored it, shoving her sword forward, but knowing it wouldn't hit. Itachi saw it coming, and...

He dropped his guard, opening his arms wide. The blade slid in between his ribs, causing her to gasp in shock. Itachi fell, smiling, as his sister dropped to her knees beside him.

"You... You let me..." she whispered, remembering his open arms. He let her. "WHY?!"

"I can't face killing you." he whispered. Emiko stares in shock. It wasn't meant to be this way... no, Itachi was meant to live! She wasn't supposed to be the one to win. "Emiko..."

"Hai?" she asked, tears pouring down her face, her eyes spinning, as the tears start to turn red.

"Can you promise me something?"

"Anything aniki. I'll do anything." Emiko whispers, sliding her arms under him, and holding him to her chest.

"I... I can handle our brother hating me, but he can't hate you. Pretend to be me, please. Don't let anyone..." Emiko closed her eyes, as her brother died.

"Hai... aniki." She didn't want to, she wanted to be Emiko, but she knew that her role as Emiko was done now. The curtains had closed on her...

And her new role was her brother.

She screamed, holding her brother in her arms, as her eyes spun into pinwheels, her tears now blood, as she screamed to the heavens.

-0-

Stage make up was simple to put on. It was simple to become her brother, she had lived alongside him for so long...

_Thirteen years, until I fucking stabbed him..._

She ignored the voice, instead she looked at herself. She had already looked like Itachi... a bit of eye liner on her cheeks, some foundation, a quick jutsu to make it hold, and a minor genjutsu to not notice the faint offness, and she could pass. Her scar was covered as well.

It was only the hair left.

She stared at the dark locks around her face. She had never pulled her hair back with anything but the ribbon she had given her little brother so long ago...

That was Emiko though... she was Itachi now... she was...

She cried as she pulled her hair back, her heart breaking even more.

Soon it would be shattered.

-0-

She walked back into Konoha after burning her brother's corpse, watching through hooded eyes.

Everyone asked, where was Emiko? Where was she?

"She gave me her ribbon! She promised to come back?"

Dead. Dead. She died. She died. We were attacked, and she didn't make it. I burned her corpse. Dead. Dead...

"NO! YOU'RE LYING! SHE PROMISED TO COME BACK! SHE SAID AS LONG AS I HAD HER RIBBON!"

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry...

_Apologies can't help those who lie._

-0-

"Where is Emiko?"

Right in front of you.

"Dead, she died when we were attacked by Kumo ninja. I burned the corpse to hide its secrets."

Lies. Lies. Lies.

"...Shisu died oddly to, did he not?"

Itachi killed him.

"He committed suicide."

He gave us his eye. I have it in a scroll.

"Hmm... Itachi, do you still wish for the clan to continue on its path."

No. I plan on killing you on the Hokage's orders. It's my role to do so.

"Yes."

Liar. Liar. Liar.

-0-

Blood splattered the halls. She was covered in it. Her sword dripped and oozed.

She killed the parents first... leaving the babes for 'Tobi' Obitobi. Obito... whatever. She knew he was around. He probably wanted to see how this all would turn out.

Her hair had blood in it. Her headband had a scratch through the leaf. She was killing her family.

_Murder, murder everywhere._

She reached her parents' room. She walked in, head to toe in blood.

-0-

"I'm Emiko." is the only thing she tells them, before she kill her father, the blood flying. She moves to her mother.

"We know." is the only thing her mother says, before the blood coats the ground.

"Nii-san..." a voice called. She looked up, staring at her little brother, eyes spinning. "What happened? Why are kaa-chan and tou-san...?"

"Foolish, foolish little brother."

-0-

She throws up once outside Konoha. She drops to her knees beside a river and throws up into a bush, gagging, and vomiting for an hour straight, red tears pouring down her cheeks.

_"I wanted to test my strength."_

_"Is this because of Emiko, did you want to prove you were strong enough to have protected her?"_

_"Wh-what?"_

_"I heard you cry at night. You cry because you couldn't protect her right?"_

She puked some more, before she drew her knees up and buried her face into them, smearing blood all over her face, the coppery smell polluting her nose.

_"Foolish, foolish little brother. Emiko is dead because I killed her._

_"...Wh-what?"_

_"I wanted the Mangekyo Sharigan, and I needed to kill the closest person to me to get it... so why not my twin?"_

She gagged again, moving to vomit once more into the bush.

_"Run, run away and cling to life."_

-0-

Kisame finds her- she isn't too shocked.

She agrees to join the Akatsuki. She does have a role to play, after all, and this role begins, and ends, with her wearing a cloak covered in red clouds.

-0-

It plays on her mind, sometimes.

Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?

Her masks cover her face, and she wears them often, changing them when needed.

Who is she? She doesn't know. Her role changes so often her mind spins.

Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia?

She doesn't know.

-0-

Nii-san killed Nee-chan. He killed her for power.

Sasuke lay in bed, staring out the window, holding onto the ribbon in his hands, stained with the blood of his relatives.

He killed her because he wanted a stupid Sharigan. He killed her.

Sasuke closed his eyes, and took a breath.

He would kill nii-san for his nee-chan.

-0-

Being part of the Akatsuki is odd. She was the youngest there, and was treated a lot differently then the others.

Kisame was annoyed with her, she could tell. He got stuck with a young kid as his partner.

He changed his tune after the two slaughtered an entire gang together. He quite enjoyed her angry killing.

-0-

"You know, I have a good sense of smell." Kisame said one day, while the two were walking down a road.

"Hn?" Emiko asked, not really feeling like talking. She had just started her period, and was not pleased.

"I can smell blood... more specifically, when a woman is having her period." Emiko whipped her head around, with her eyes wide. "So, want to tell me the truth now?"

"I killed my brother and took his place." was her short answer, as she turned her face away.

"Why?"

"Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies."

-0-

Orochimaru is just as creepy as he seemed to be in the manga. She avoided him as much as possible, shivering when she spotted his insane eyes.

He wants her eyes, she knows that. She's tempted to say screw it, and let him take her body, but... she can't. She has her role to play, her part to preform. Her dance to dance.

-0-

Orochimaru tries to steal her eyes. She beats him, and lets him run off.

Kisame is angry, the Leader is angry. Hidan is grumpy he didn't get to kill the snake. Kakuzu wants the money. Zetsu wanted to eat him. Konan is furious. Sasori is blank.

And she is numb. Numb. Numb. Numb.

-0-

Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?

-0-

Sasori needs a new partner, so they start hunting. She ends up working closely with him, as they search, being sent out with him and Kisame often.

It's annoying, she needed to unbind sometimes, but she couldn't.

As the three search, she finds herself amused by the puppet master. His deadpan reminds her of Itachi in some ways...

She cut the thought off, before it could venture to far.

-0-

Deidara is funny. After she used her sharigan on him, he had declared her his rival, making her think of Gai and Kakashi, and began trying to kill her at all opportunities.

Kisame teases her about a crush on the blonde, which she responds to with a kunai thrown at his head.

-0-

She went blind for five minutes the first time when she was on a mission. Kisame freaked out, and acted like a mother hen the rest of the week, refusing to let her go too far.

Since she ended up coughing up blood three days later, it was a good thing.

"Sasori is our healer-"

"No." is her only reply. "I won't let them find out."

"What is so bad about them knowing?"

"I promised my brother I'd pretend to be him. I won't break it."

"...You two were close, huh?"

"Yes."

And that's the end of it. He watched her like a hawk, and helped her through her blind periods, but he made no more comments about talking to Sasori.

-0-

"I hate him sometimes." she remarked one day, after waking up from a nightmare of blood. She was breathing erratically, and sweat had pooled around her. Kisame gave her drugs, but they were taking a while to take effect.

"Who?"

"Itachi. I hate him when I dream of the massacre sometimes. He took the easy way out. Instead of actually fucking fighting me to win the so called honor of killing our family, all he did was let me run him through." she knew she shouldn't be talking about this, but she really didn't care. "I can't sleep half the time, I'm dying because of these stupid, stupid eyes, and I tortured my own baby brother, and pretended to be my older brother because I promised him. I keep on replaying the entire night in my mind, and sometimes I can't breathe-" she choked, shaking. "I hate him sometimes... but I think the reason I hate him the most is because he...

_He made me kill him."_

-0-

Kisame never talked about that night, which she was grateful for. She really didn't want to think about it.

She went blind in front of the Akatsuki when she was sixteen. She was simply looking in the fridge for food when it strikes. She froze when he vision went, stopping herself from grabbing the milk.

"Kisame?" She called out, her voice steady.

"What?" he grumbled from the table.

"My vision blacked out." she was calm, despite the fact everyone heard her. She heard all movement behind her cease.

"Shit." Kisame swore, standing from the table, and moving towards her. "Milk?"

"I was going to have cereal." she said, stepping back, only to bump into someone. Her hand went to her kunai pouch before it stilled.

"Damn... you are fucking blind." she ignored Hidan as she maneuvered herself around the kitchen, relying on her ninja talents to tell where everyone was. "How the fuck did this happen dipshit?"

"The Mangekyo sharigan is a powerful tool, but it causes the user to go blind if user too much. It can also lead to an early death." She finds a chair, and sits down. "I tend not to use it after I go blind."

"This isn't the first time?" Sasori asked, his voice completely professional.

"I've had it happen about seven times before. The shortest time I was blind for was five minutes, the longest an hour." She didn't speak again, not until she finished the bowl of cereal that Kisame got her, missing her mouth every once in a while, getting snickers from Deidara she ignored.

It takes two hours this time. She sits silently through it, not even paying attention to Sasori looking at her eyes.

She vomits blood for three days afterwards.

-0-

Is she Itachi? Or is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Who is she?

-0-

She stood in front of Konoha, her hair flying around her, with Kisame by her side.

It's time for her to dance to the tune, and to play her role.

**Intermission**

* * *

><p>I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I hope for four or five chapters, each of them called a 'act'. I won't do scenes though, not this time.<p>

This story is only one path that could have been chosen: the other would have been Itachi winning, were everything goes perfectly canon. This... not so much.

The random changes in first and past perspective are meant to be there as a way of showing Emiko's rapidly deteriorating mental state.

Review please!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Masks

**Summery: **Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Her masks keep appearing, her masks keep slipping. Her role keeps changing. Who is she? Sequel to ATWAS

* * *

><p><em>"Out damned spot, out I say!"- Lady Macbeth, William Shakespeare, <span>Macbeth<span>_

**Act Two**

He doesn't look like he did in the anime, she mused as she faced her brother. His hair is longer, and held back by her ribbon- the one she gave him so long ago. He wears her old hoddie, the one she brought back bloody to claim that Emiko was dead- which she was.

"ITACHI!" he growls, throwing himself at her. But he is to slow, much to slow, as she moves, slamming her knee into his stomach, and throwing him against the wall. She looks into his eyes, and simply smiles.

"Foolish little brother."

-0-

They fail, and she doesn't care.

She wonders, as she sits beside Kisame. If she's Itachi… is she Emiko? What about Julia? Who is Julia anymore? A silly woman, wanting to be an actress? A woman torn and hurt because of the roles she plays? A woman far to old now?

Who is she? Who is Julia?

Was there ever a Julia? Or was Julia a fantasy? Who?

-0-

Sasori and her often spent time around each other, as the blind fits become more and more frequent. She admits, to herself, she looks at him like a fatherish figure. Or an Uncle.

She won't talk about it more than that.

-0-

She doesn't cry when Sasuke defects. She can't muster the urge. She just feels disappointed.

They run into one of the Oto teams one day, and she sends a message back, a taunt,

"Emiko would be so disappointed." She later hears that Sasuke had gone and killed the messenger.

She hates herself a little more with that.

-0-

Deidara tries to kill her when she's blind only once. Kakuzu is the one who beats the crap out of him.

"It's not worth killing him when he can't see." He snaps, annoyed at the younger boy. She simply smiles a bit at that.

-0-

Who was Julia? Was Julia her? Was Julia just a dream? Is this just a dream?

What is real? Is she real? Are her brothers real?

What is reality? What is it but a sense of the mind? Is she real?

-0-

She has nightmares about the massacre. She sometimes wakes up, and thinks she's covered in blood.

Lady Macbeth rings in her mind, as she sits on her bed, staring at the wall.

"Out damned spot." She says softly, staring at the wall. "Out I say." She says, as she rubs her hands together.

-0-

Kisame is without a doubt the best friend she could ever have. Hence why she stays with him when he has his own nightmares, and hence why she trusts him with her care when blind.

Working alongside Sasori is too weird for words, as Kisame lies in the medical unit, to hurt to risk going out. She noticed a man about to stab him in his heart, and she intercepts.

She goes blind a day after the battle, still with Sasori. He helps her through it. When she coughs up blood, he yanks off her shirt, only slightly shocked at her chest. He simply makes sure to heal her as efficiently as possible.

-0-

"So you're on medication that's not for the mind? How on earth did he miss that?"

"Bite me Kisame."

"Ooh, kinky. Didn't know you liked big blue guys."

"Oh, don't you know? I adore them."

-0-

Julia was an actress.

Emiko was a ninja.

Itachi is a criminal.

Who is she? Which soul is hers? What name is hers?

Sometimes she considers letting herself die, not catching the kunai, not dodging the attack, but she continues on because she knows her brother would have wanted her to.

She just wishes she knew who she was

-0-

Blood covers her hands, and she can't get it off. She can't breathe, she can't speak.

"GET IT OFF!' she screams, her voice already going hoarse. "GET THE BLOOD OFF!"

"Itachi!"

"Dipshit!"

"WAKE UP!"

"ITACHI!" she wakes up covered in sweat, unable to breath. Kisame, Hidan and Sasori are staring at her.

"The blood won't go away." She whispered. "It won't leave my hands."

-0-

Zetsu sits with her, as she stares ahead, blind once more.

"You're a girl." His light side says.

**"I wonder why you've been hiding it."**

"I promised my brother. How did you guess?" she asks the pant man. He shrugs.

"We have a good sense of smell." Zetsu says, shrugging. He is… an oddity to her. She thinks of him as a he, a single entity, but is he really? He seems to have two minds in one body, does he have multiple personalities? **"Well, that's a fucked up way of repaying him for what happened. Letting yourself be thought of as him."**

"Itachi wanted it this way. I respect his decisions." She looks away.

"Your mind is slowly breaking," observes Zetsu, watching her. "**How long till it breaks?"**

"I think that's my business, don't you agree?" she asks, before she leaves, using the wall to navigate. She really doesn't want to be psychologically analyzed.

An hour later, she's forced to sit back down with Zetsu, who is analyzing her. Damn it, she did not sign up for this.

**"I agree with her, this is stupid as fuck. **Shush, we were asked, and we agreed to do it."

She really shouldn't, but she kind of wants to fuck with them, just a bit.

"I was an actress killed by a car- a horseless carriage. I was reborn in a fucking manga written by a man named Kishimoto, and to protect myself I retreated into my mind, and created the face of Emiko. However, it ended up that my mind began to break, and I realized that my façade wasn't a façade anymore.

I sometimes get confused if I'm Emiko, or if I'm Julia. Or am I Itachi? I have no idea who I am because I keep putting masks on, and I have nightmares about the massacre, and dream about the blood, and I keep thinking about this play called Macbeth, and the main female character commits a murder, and she keeps seeing blood on her hands. So, I'm wondering, am I sane, at all? Or am I so fucked up that I can't tell a circle from a line?"

"…**Holy shit, you are batshit. **Shut up, you're not supposed to say it like that-"

-0-

"…Meds?" Kisame asks, staring at the bottle. She shrugs, as she downs her other medication, the ones for her lungs. "You're seriously on medication? For your brain?"

"Laugh it up." She says, waving a hand. It actually helped a bit, ranting at Zetsu, and honestly, the medication helped to, a bit. Calmed her down and made her think more clearly.

"This isn't funny! It's one thing to laugh at your physical illness, because you just shrug it off and act like it's nothing! But this?! This is serious." He actually looks worried, shocking her a bit. "I remember hearing you scream at night half the time! But…"

"Hey, Kisame!" she knocks him gently in the shoulder. "I'm fine. These pills are just to help me sleep," she holds up one bottle, medication made by Zetsu himself that was guaranteed to not let any dreams happen (she has no idea if she wants to know anything about it), "This is for my minor depression, and this is for…" Them thinking I'm seeing things. "Schizophrenia." Silence reigned, before Kisame snatched up the bottles, and reads the labels.

"I'll remember to give them to you on a regular basis, like I do with your other pills."

"Oi! I'm seventeen! I can take care of myself."

"You didn't take your pills for a week, and Sasori tore you a new one when you collapsed and coughed up blood for an hour."

"…You're an ass."

"I know. Now come on, lets go get some pocky."

"…Really?"

"Yes."

"I take back every nasty thing I have ever said about you."

-0-

"Oh, Uchiha!" She looks up from her book to see Deidara right in her face. "I hear you're on pills, un."

"Your point?" she asks, turning a page in her book. Deidara doesn't answer instead he sits next to her.

"They put me on some to, un." Complete silence reigned.

"Really? Isn't pyromania a good thing for you?"

"It's not for pyromania, un." Deidara says, waving a hand lazily, the tongue hanging out. "It's for a chemical imbalance, un."

"Huh." Silence stayed between the two, for once Deidara not trying to blow her up when the two were alone.

It was rather… nice, really.

-0-

They sit at the meeting, waiting for anything. She's been blind for a day, but she's currently able to see, as she plays shogi against Sasori as Pein goes on and on about this and that.

She chokes on her own blood a minute later, and doubles up as it spews out of her mouth.

They panic, as they see the second youngest of their organization choke. Hidan jumps up, swearing as Sasori yanks off the cloak. Kakuzu is moving, Deidara is as well. Kisame is swearing as Zetsu, Konan and Pein all start, then stop.

Sasori removed the bindings, knowing all they were doing was restricting her breath. He needed to get her breathing again, even if it meant they knew.

They all stared at the girl as she coughed and coughed, before she looked up, resigned.

"Surprise?"

-0-

The medication makes things clear, but she still wonders…

Julia, Emiko, Itachi? She's played all those parts and danced to those tunes…

But who is she? Is she the actress, the follower, the murderer?

Who is she?

-0-

Her gender was out in the open, and the reason why, though not the truth about the massacre. That she keeps close.

No one knows how to act anymore until she beheads Hidan for stealing her pocky.

Then they knew it was still her.

-0-

Deidara wasn't sure how to act around Itachi- Emiko. She was crazy, he knew that. She didn't talk about it, but she still woke up from nightmares. Everyone knew that.

He has spent so much time hating him- her, then learning h-she was crazy… he couldn't do it anymore. Hating someone sane was alright, but sometimes he wondered if he-she dammit!- was all there at the best of times. Learning about her delusions just made it more obvious.

He was still confused about how to act around her when her real gender was revealed… then he decided he didn't care anymore and just acted like normal.

Minus the whole 'blow her up!' part.

-0-

Who is she? Julia… Emiko… Itachi…

So many masks for her, but which one is who she really is?

* * *

><p>So, yeah... filler for the time skip.<p>

Yes, Emiko is fucked up. She and Kisame have a bromance, and she and Deidara get along because both are on medication.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Review please!


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Masks

**Summery: **Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia? Her masks keep appearing, her masks keep slipping. Her role keeps changing. Who is she? Sequel to ATWAS

* * *

><p><em>"My family is my strength and my weakness."- <em>_Aishwarya Rai Bachchan_

**Act Three**

Time is an enemy of all. Emiko sighs as she stands with the Akatsuki, as they drain the demon from Gaara. He looks like he sleeps, and she is grateful he does not feel this. It would be painful if he awoken.

Emiko fights with Kisame, against her brother's team. She keeps a clone behind.

Sasori is her family, and she will make sure he lives.

-0-

He does, barely. His puppets are gone and he has to start from scratch. She offers her body once she is dead. He agrees.

Kisame thinks it's morbid, but doesn't comment to much. He also offers. Sasori, Kakuzu and Hidan are immortal- now and forever. They need something to hold onto.

-0-

Who is she? Is she a villain? An actress? A sister? Which mask is hers? Who is she?

-0-

Tobi shows up, to be Sasori's replacement for a time. He gives her a talking to when they are alone, and she pretends to be afraid.

She isn't.

-0-

She and Deidara are close enough that the two have slept together once or twice. Once, she is asked if she loves him. It is after sex, and she states she doesn't.

He nods and says the same. Neither love one another like that. It's okay for them, that they don't love one another.

-0-

Who is she? She has her dreams, and her hallucinations. Who is the woman hiding behind her masks? She is scared to find out.

-0-

Life goes and goes and goes.

She hates it, and confides in her family, the small family she made within this group. They all agree.

She fights her brother, and cries.

-0-

She tests herself in private once. She stares at the answer, and closes her eyes.

She tells him, and they come to a decision. It is later that night when Deidara casts the jutsu to end the life of the child she carries.

She has never regretted her decision.

-0-

Kisame asks her why she hates Tobi, and she tells the truth.

He breaks a table in anger.

-0-

"Why do you hold onto this 'manga' idea of yours?" Sasori asks. "From the sound of it, it ends bad for us."

"Because it ends good for everyone else."

"And yet you saved me, can't you save yourself?"

Can she?

-0-

Can she save herself? Can she become the woman under the masks?

But, who is she? Does anyone know? Can anyone help her figure this out? It keeps going and going in circles.

-0-

Hidan and Kakuzu die later. Or Hidan kind of dies. He's still alive, but stuck.

No one offers to dig him up. The Nara are well known for being lazy by everyone.

The few who wronged them know that they are the worst to face in battle. After all, who else can control what goes bump in the night.

-0-

It's hard to listen to Tobi, she notices Kisame flinch and frown at times, but give in. He grows more and more angry, but she cautions him.

Even if he isn't Madara, he is still dangerous and can kill them easily. He must be watched.

-0-

Who is she? Her mind is torn, and she is hurt, heartbroken.

Her pills stopped working, her mind is torn. She screams at night, her mind in shadow.

Who is she?

-0-

She fights Sasuke, and she studies him. He wears her ribbon still, holding back his long hair. He also wears a hoodie- one she wore as a teen herself.

His hate filled eyes makes her heart scream as he yells at her.

"ITACHI!"

Is that who she is?

-0-

"Why don't we leave?" it comes from Kisame. They look at him. "If Emiko isn't nuts-"

"I am, but I'm fairly certain that this is real." She points out. Deidara snorts.

"Great, taking advice from a schitzo about reality." She punches him, and Kisame ignores them as Sasori rolls his eyes.

"If she is right, then this… this ends bad. We all die. She may have changed a bit, but not everything. So… why not leave? Fake our deaths, disappear into another village. Live."

It makes a lot of sense.

-0-

In a small village a few miles away from Konoha, four new comers showed up. A red head, a blue man, a pretty black haired woman and a blonde man.

The brunet and the blonde are married, and the blue man is the girl's brother. The red head is the blonde's cousin.

The woman is blind, they notice. She uses a cane a lot, and her husband helps her. Her brother is a mercenary, and the red head is a toymaker. They keep to themselves.

It's obvious they are ex-ninja, but they accept it. It is common to have ex-ninja settle down in their village. They are used to it.

-0-

It is easy to pretend to be married. Both of them care enough for the other to pull it off.

She prefers the companionship of her friends to that of lovers.

-0-

Deidara and Sasori are closer than before now, and she and Kisame are closer to. No longer fighting, just being happy.

Kisame fights bandits and still gets his bloodshed. Deidara still blows things up. Sasori makes her puppets.

And she… she reads. She reads and reads.

She also watches, with her decaying eyesight- eyesight that fades more and more with each cough of blood she gives. She knows her family well.

-0-

"You love him." She states one day, while the two lay in bed. Deidara doesn't even bother to pretend.

"Yeah, I do un."

"Have you told him?"

"No."

"You should, he loves you back."

-0-

She smiles when she sees the two cuddling. Kisame cackles, and taunts them.

She still sleeps with Deidara from time to time. Sasori can't have sex, nor is interested.

-0-

She become sick one day, sicker then normal, and Sasori checks her over, making a discovery.

She has another babe to carry. She wonders, if she can carry the child.

If she can change the future.

-0-

Who is she? Is she a wife? Is she a sister? An Actress? A ninja? A criminal? A lover?

Is she Itachi? Is she Emiko? Is she Julia?

Can she be a mother? Or will it just be another mask?

-0-

It's hard, the pregnancy. Her disease has ripped through her body, and she coughs up blood daily.

Deidara is with her every step of the way. Sasori heals her, and Kisame keeps an eye out.

Kisame is without a doubt the best though. He carries her when needed, scares the other ex-ninja away and he cares for her every day.

-0-

Sometimes... she wishes she could love.

She wishes it when she watches Sasori and Deidara, and wishes for what they have.

She wishes she had someone like that, but she can't love. It's to hard for her to do so.

As she feels her stomach grow, she knows at least she can love this child. She can love it like she loves her brother. She can love it fully and happily with no regrets.

-0-

Sasuke finds her, as she walks through the village. He attacks in blind rage, not seeing.

She fights back, hard, but trying to protect her baby. Karin is looking confused, as Suigetsu and Juugo are frowning.

She goes into early labor after leading them away from the village, praying Kisame or Deidara had heard.

"SHE'S IN LABOR!" shrieks Karin upon realizing the fluctuations.

Sasuke's face is freaking hilarious.

-0-

Who is she? Who is she behind the mask? As she cries and bleeds, and grasps Sasuke's hand, she wonders.

-0-

Sasuke stares at Itachi- no Emiko- as she gives birth to his niece. The girl is so quiet, and Ita-Emiko looks terrified.

"She breaths, right? I can't… I can't see anymore." And she nearly beat him, she hurt him hard while blind.

It is in this moment he realizes that he was still unready to face It-Emiko.

"She breaths." Karin assures the woman as three men appear- ex-Akatsuki.

-0-

Emiko feels her life slip away as she places a hand on her baby's face, feeling it.

"Sasuke… Sasuke-" she reaches out, and he is there. She uses her hand to feel his face, and touch his hair. Her ribbon was still there. "I always came back for you." She says, smiling in pain.

"Why? Nee-chan…" he asks, chocked. The truth comes out, and she sobs, feeling her tears.

"I'm not sure who I am… am I Emiko? Itachi… or am I Julia? Who am I?" she says, as Karin and Sasori try to heal her, but her disease had wrecked her, she is broken, broken.

"You're my nee-chan." Sasuke says, holding her tightly, ignoring the healers. "Your name doesn't matter, your mine." Emiko feels his tears on her hair, and can't help her smile.

"Yeah, yeah I…"

-0-

Sasuke fights against Tobito and the other Akatsuki. Kisame, Sasori and Deidara fight, as does a black haired puppet who moves eerily.

Many die as they fight.

Kisame dies by refusing to tell them where the baby is- having given her to a summon when he realized who was approaching.

A Hyuuga dies protecting his cousin, and the boy who changed his life.

A bun haired girl dies protecting a red headed healer.

A man who uses nature chakra dies protecting the only one who could control him.

Bodies litter the ground, and a black haired puppet dances among it, red eyes whirling.

It is this puppet that stabs Obito before he can let out the ten-tails.

They all agree it is fitting.

-0-

Julia is teased by some for her odd name, but she stomps her foot and ignores it, instead spending time with her family. She has a cousin, Itachi who has his mummy's red hair and his daddy's dark eyes.

Her Uncle sometimes leaves with the Hokage- who visits them in their tiny village. He's fun, but she prefers her daddy's art and her Uncle Sasori's puppets to him. He has two really nice ones. A black haired one and a blue one. She likes them a lot.

Julia smiles, and laughs and is happy.

-0-

Sasuke visits a stone sometimes, a stone marked with the names Itachi, Emiko and Julia. He sits and prays to his sister, and then leaves.

One day, a girl with blonde hair, red eyes and mouths on her hands visits it.

One day, a red haired puppter-man visits, carrying a scroll filled with puppets- two blondes, two brunettes, one blue skinned one, one red head. He doesn't speak before he leaves, but he always has a bit of a smile on his face afterwards.

-0-

Who is she?

She is a mother, she is a sister, she is a lover, she is a friend.

She is a criminal, a killer, an actress.

She is Emiko, Itachi, Julia.

She is herself, and that is all that matters, in the end.

* * *

><p>Holy fuck, I did not… wow.<p>

I'm actually crying. Oh shit, I did not… wow. Okay. This… it wasn't suppose to end like this. Damn it- It was suppose to end with Emiko smiling, as she knits or does some awesome grandma ninja stuff and her grandkids, and ah! BUT NO!

ARGH!

Hope you liked it, the ending… fuck. Okay, well, this was a fun story, and it was interesting, getting to know Emiko.

Emiko is without a doubt one of my favorite characters I created, and I love her even more after doing this.

But, her life is over, and it is time to say goodbye to her. Thank you all for reading her story!


End file.
